I AM writing to reassure your correspondent who is worried about the changes to the collection plates on letter boxes in the Swindon area.

These are part of nationwide changes to help our visually-impaired customers have access to the information on the collection plate. Acting on advice from the RNIB, have made the text on the plates larger and clear. As larger text takes up more space, and as we are not able to make the plates themselves any bigger we have removed information which does not have any bearing on our delivery operation.

Yes, this does help make our operation more efficient because we are not tied to very specific collection times. However, LG Lane's suggestion that this will slow the speed of letters from postbox to destination is completely wrong. The notion that a letter posted at 9am will reach its destination any quicker than one posted just before the last collection, is mistaken both pieces of mail are treated equally, and leave our mail centre at the same time. There is no reason, as your correspondent suggests, why any customer should rush to catch any particular interim collection during the day.

Collections are being made in the same way as before the information was changed, however we are now improving our service to partially-sighted customers without affecting the speed of customer's mail through our system

DAN PANES

External Relations Officer, South and West

Royal Mail Group plc

Bristol